I think what we want for styling columns is a selector like
:nth-column(), taking arguments just like :nth-child() does. It
would match any elements that were *semantically* (based on the
markup, not CSS 'display') table cells that were in the column with
the given index. (Doing this in Mozilla is
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=371323 . Please don't
comment on the bug unless your comment will contribute to fixing the
bug or help you contribute to fixing it.)
We could also have a :column-element() pseudo-class that contained a
selector that would apply to table cells associated (semantically)
with a table column element that matched the selector.
I think the solution to implementing what HTML requires for
inheritance of stylistic attributes from columns should be
HTML-specific. In other words, it should change the way HTML
presentational attributes are mapped to CSS, but not change anything
about CSS. (Doing this in Mozilla is
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=915 . Please don't
comment on the bug unless your comment will contribute to fixing the
bug or help you contribute to fixing it.)
-David
--
L. David Baron http://dbaron.org/
Mozilla Corporation http://www.mozilla.com/